Introducing the Most Important Person You'll Ever Know
Thesis: Jesus can and will restore honor, hope, and joy, and bring true, lasting peace, because He is the Messiah.
Objective: Challenge people to see Jesus as the most important part of the Christmas season and the most important person in their lives.
- Jesus restores (1-3).
- He restores honor (1; For people beaten and defeated by life and sin, the Messiah was expected to restore respectability.).
- He restores hope (2; For people whose hope has long been extinguished, the Messiah was to restore hope.).
- He restores joy (3; For people who have seen only enemies on every side, the Messiah was to restore the joy by providing the certainty that it would all work out in the end.).
- Jesus brings peace (4-5, 7).
- ILLUSTRATION: Wikipedia currently identifies 7 conflicts globally in which at least 1000 people die each year, and an additional 20 significant conflicts around the world. Included among these are conflicts like the Afghanistan, Somalia, and the Mexican Drug War; as well as internal conflict in Myanmar/Burma, insurgency in the Phillippines, two conflicts in Yemen (south Yemen insurgency and al Qaeda crackdown), and the war on crime in Rio de Janero which just yesterday dispatched the army to occupy gang-controlled areas.
- He shatters oppression (4; Just as Gideon overthrew the oppression of the Midians in Judges 8:24-27, the Messiah was expected to overthrow oppression. The difference was that, in Gideon's day, the oppression was political; Messiah came the first time to overthrow spiritual oppression, and the second time will overthrow all remaining oppression.).
- He eliminates war (5; The Messiah was expected to bring real and lasting peace to the world. The first time He came, He enabled real peace on a personal level, even if not on a global one. The second time, He will put an end to all war everywhere.).
- He establishes justice and righteousness (“establishing and upholding [his kingdom] with justice and righteousness” (7); In a truly peaceful society, justice (DEFINITION: the quality of being treated fair and reasonable) and righteousness (DEFINITION: morally right) are the rule. Messiah came the first time to open the possibility of these things in individual lives, and the second time will establish them as the rule for all lives.).
- Jesus is most important (6-7).
- He is the Wonderful Counselor (“Wonderful Counselor” (6); As Charles Ryrie points out, “wonderful” in Scriptures often indicates the supernatural. Jesus is the supernatural counselor, offering insight and advice on God's will for our lives (As Henry points out, “He is the wisdom of the Father, and is made of God to us wisdom.”) and representing us before God the Father at our trial on The Day.).
- He is the Mighty God (“Mighty God” (6); He is not merely “a child” or “a son,” but God Himself. The angels pointed this out when they called Him “Christ the Lord.” He not only has the wisdom to know what to do, but the omnipotence to see it done.).
- He is the Everlasting Father (“Everlasting Father” (6); Literally rendered “Father of eternity,” Jesus is as eternal as the Father, the author of everlasting life, and He chooses to relate to us as a father, loving us and providing for us like no one else can.).
- He is the Prince of Peace (“Prince of Peace” (6); Jesus is the source and sovereign of true peace. QUOTE: “As a King, he preserves the peace, commands peace, nay, he creates peace, in his kingdom. He is our peace, and it is his peace that both keeps the hearts of his people and rules in them” (Matthew Henry).).
- He is the ultimate leader (“the government will be on his shoulders” (6); “Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end” (7); “He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom” (7); Jesus needs no advisors, aids, Congress, or court system. Ultimately, all authority will be founded upon Him, and He will prove more than worthy of such high distinction!).
- He is endorsed by God (“The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this” (7); Jesus enjoys the full support of God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. They are working together to accomplish all of this.).
Ryrie
(1) “Zebulun and Naphtali were humbled under the yoke of Assyria (2 Kings 15:29). But because Christ would later live, and minister, in Galilee (the same geographical area), they will be glorious.”
(4) “Midian's defeat” is “a reference to Gideon's victory over the Midianites” in Judges 8:24-27.
(6) “Messiah will come as a baby who is born and as a gift from God to be a ruler.”
(6) “Wonderful regularly means 'supernatural' (cf Judg 13:18), so the phrase ['wonderful counselor'] refers to Messiah as the supernatural Counselor who, at His first coming, brought words of eternal life, and who, when He comes again, will rule with perfect wisdom (Isa 11:2).”
(6) “Mighty God” is “a term applied to Yahweh in Deut 10:17); Isa 10:21; jer 32:18; and which predicts the ultimate victory of Messiah over evil.”
(6) “Everlasting Father” is literally rendered “Father of Eternity; i.e., Messiah is eternally a Father to His people, guarding, supplying, and caring for their needs.”
(6) “Prince of Peace” represents “the One who brings peace in the fullest sense of wholeness, prosperity, and tranquility. Individuals can now know His peace, and one day the world will experience it as well (Isa 2:4).”
(7) “The everlasting rule of Messiah on David's throne awaits the second coming of Christ.”
Henry
“In the worst of times God's people have a nevertheless to comfort themselves with, something to allay and balance their troubles; they are persecuted, but not forsaken (2 Cor. iv. 9), sorrowful yet always rejoicing, 2 Cor. vi. 10. And it is matter of comfort to us, when things are at the darkest, that he who forms the light and creates the darkness (ch. xlv. 7) has appointed to both their bounds and set the one over against the other, Gen. iv. 4. He can say, "Hitherto the dimness shall go, so long it shall last, and no further, no longer."”
“God tries what less judgments will do with a people before he brings greater; but if a light affliction do not do its work with us, to humble and reform us, we must expect to be afflicted more grievously; for when God judges he will overcome.”
“those were dark times with the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, and there was dimness of anguish in Galilee of the Gentiles, both in respect of ignorance (they did not speak according to the law and the testimony, and then there was no light in them, ch. viii. 20) and in respect of trouble, and the desperate posture of their outward affairs; we have both together, 2 Chron. xv. 3, 5.”
“At this time when the prophet lived, there were many prophets in Judah and Israel, whose prophecies were a great light both for direction and comfort to the people of God, who adhered to the law and the testimony.”
“This was to have its full accomplishment when our Lord Jesus began to appear as a prophet, and to preach the gospel in the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, and in Galilee of the Gentiles.”
“Those that want the gospel walk in darkness, and know not what they do nor whither they go; and they dwell in the land of the shadow of death, in thick darkness, and in the utmost danger.”
“When the gospel comes to any place, to any soul, light comes, a great light, a shining light, which will shine more and more.”
“The numbers of a nation are its strength and wealth if the numerous be industrious; and it is God that increases nations, Job xii. 23.”
“their mirth is not like that of Israel under their vines and fig-trees (thou hast not increased that joy), but it is in the favour of God and in the tokens of his grace.”
“The gospel, when it comes in its light and power, brings joy along with it, and those who receive it aright do therein rejoice, yea, and will rejoice; therefore the conversion of the nations is prophesied of by this (Ps. lxvii. 4), Let the nations be glad, and sin for joy.”
“It is holy joy: They joy before thee; they rejoice in spirit (as Christ did, Luke x. 21), and that is before God. In the eye of the world they are always as sorrowful, and yet, in God's sight, always rejoicing, 2 Cor. vi. 10.”
“It is great joy; it is according to the joy in harvest, when those who sowed in tears, and have with long patience waited for the precious fruits of the earth, reap in joy; and as in war men rejoice when, after a hazardous battle, they divide the spoil.”
“The gospel brings with it plenty and victory; but those that would have the joy of it must expect to go through a hard work, as the husbandman before he has the joy of harvest, and a hard conflict, as the soldier before he has the joy of dividing the spoil; but the joy, when it comes, will be an abundant recompence for the toil.”
A third promise of this passage is that “of a glorious liberty and enlargement.”
“If God makes former deliverances his patterns in working for us, we ought to make them our encouragements to hope in him and to seek to him”
It's important to note that Isaiah speaks of the coming Immanuel in present tense, as though he has already arrived. Such was his confidence that it would happen.
“What greater security therefore could be given to the church of God then that it should be preserved, and be the special care of the divine Providence, than this, that God had so great a mercy in reserve for it?”
“The same that is the mighty God is a child born; the ancient of days becomes an infant of a span long; the everlasting Father is a Son given. Such was his condescension in taking our nature upon him; thus did he humble and empty himself, to exalt and fill us. He is born into our world.”
“He is given, freely given, to be all that to us which our case, in our fallen state, calls for.”
“God so loved the world that he gave him. He is born to us, he is given to us, us men, and not to the angels that sinned.”
“His people shall know him and worship him by these names; and, as one that fully answers them, they shall submit to him and depend upon him”
Wonderful counselor
“Justly is he called wonderful, for he is both God and man. His love is the wonder of angels and glorified saints; in his birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension, he was wonderful. A constant series of wonders attended him, and, without controversy, great was the mystery of godliness concerning him.”
“He is the counsellor, for he was intimately acquainted with the counsels of God from eternity, and he gives counsel to the children of men, in which he consults our welfare.”
“He is the wisdom of the Father, and is made of God to us wisdom.”
Mighty God
“As he has wisdom, so he has strength, to go through with his undertaking: he is able to save to the utmost; and such is the work of the Mediator that no less a power than that of the mighty God could accomplish it.”
Everlasting Father
“he is God, one with the Father, who is from everlasting to everlasting.”
“He is the author of everlasting life and happiness to them, and so is the Father of a blessed eternity to them.”
Prince of Peace
“As a King, he preserves the peace, commands peace, nay, he creates peace, in his kingdom.”
“He is our peace, and it is his peace that both keeps the hearts of his people and rules in them.”
“He is not only a peaceable prince, and his reign peaceable, but he is the author and giver of all good, all that peace which is the present and future bliss of his subjects.”
The government shall be upon his – and only his – shoulders. “He shall not only wear the badge of it upon his shoulder (the key of the house of David, ch. xxii. 22), but he shall bear the burden of it.”
“The Father shall devolve it upon him, so that he shall have an incontestable right to govern; and he shall undertake it, so that no doubt can be made of his governing well, for he shall set his shoulder to it, and will never complain, as Moses did, of his being overcharged.”
Christ's kingdom “shall be multiplied; the bounds of his kingdom shall be more and more enlarged, and many shall be added to it daily. The lustre of it shall increase, and it shall shine more and more brightly in the world.”
It is interesting to note that, in Isaiah's time an increasing government was far from ordinary. “The monarchies of the earth were each less illustrious than the other, so that what began in gold ended in iron and clay, and every monarchy dwindled by degrees; but the kingdom of Christ is a growing kingdom, and will come to perfection at last.”
“That it shall be a peaceable government, agreeable to his character as the prince of peace.”
“He shall rule by love, shall rule in men's hearts; so that wherever his government is there shall be peace, and as his government increases the peace shall increase.”
“The more we are subject to Christ the more easy and safe we are.”
There shall be “no end of the increase of the peace of it, for the happiness of the subjects of this kingdom shall last to eternity and perhaps shall be progressive in infinitum—for ever.”
“The heart of God is much upon the advancement of the kingdom of Christ among men, which is very comfortable to all those that wish well to it; the zeal of the Lord of hosts will overcome all opposition.”
(1) The northern tribe of Naphtali suffered greatly when the Assyrian Tiglath Pileser III attacked in 734 and again in 732 BC (2 Kings 15:29).
(1) The promise to honor Galilee would be “fulfilled when Jesus ministered in Capernaum – near the major highway from Egypt to Damascus, called the 'way of the sea' (Matt 4:13-15).”
(2) “Jesus and his salvation would be a 'light for the Gentiles.'”
(4) 'Gideon defeated the hordes of Midian and broke their domination over Israel (Jdg 7:22-24).”
(4) “In 10:26-27 Iaiah predicts that God will destroy the Assyrian army and their oppressive yoke. This was fulfilled in 701 BC.”
(5) “Military equipment will no longer be needed.”
(6) “son” speaks of “a royal son, a son of David.”
(6) “Each of the four throne names of Messiah consists of two elements. Unlike Immanuel, these titles were not like normal OT personal names.”
(6) “'Counselor' points to the Messiah as a king who determines upon and carries out a program of action. As Wonderful Counselor, the coming Son of David will carry out a royal program that will cause all the world to marvel. What that program will be is spelled out in ch 11, and more fully in chs 24-27.”
(6) “Mighty God” stresses God's divine power as a warrior.
(6) “Everlasting Father” conveys the message that “He will be an enduring, compassionat provider and protector.”
(6) “Prince of Peace” alludes to the fact that “his rule will bring wholeness and well-being to individuals and to society.”
(7) “In spite of the sins of kings like Ahaz, Christ will be a descendant of David who will rule in righteousness forever.”
(7) “God is like a jealous lover who will not abandon his people.”
Personal
There are over 300 references to the coming of Messiah in the OT. The chances of fulfilling just 48 of these are estimated at 1 in 10^157 (http://www.greatcom.org/resources/areadydefense/ch19/default.htm).
- Ryrie, Charles C. Ryrie Study Bible Expanded Edition. Chicago: Moody Press, 1994.
- Henry, Matthew. Commentary on the Whole Bible.http://www.ccel.org/ccel/henry/mhc6.Jam.iv.html
- Barker, Kenneth, ed. Reflecting God Study Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 2000.